Dungeons and Ponies: Strange New World
by BemnalTheFallen
Summary: Equestria has been destroyed and overrun by an invading force from another realm and all hope seems lost. Until a small group of adventurers from a new generation of ponies steps forth to take back their homeland. But the fight won't be easy, for they face the Great Old Ones... a story version of our ongoing D&D campaign, will be updated as we continue to adventure.
1. Prologue

Dungeons and Ponies: Strange New World

Equestria has been destroyed and overrun by an invading force from another realm and all hope seems lost. Until a small group of adventurers from a new generation of ponies steps forth to take back their homeland. But the fight won't be easy, for they face the Great Old Ones... a story version of our ongoing D&D campaign, will be updated as we continue to adventure.

**********disclaimer********

I do not own My Little Pony Friendship is Magic or Dungeons and Dragons Tabletop Role Playing Game or any of H.P. Lovecraft's works.

Warning, contains: fantasy violence, gore, disturbing content, sexual content.

**********disclaimer********

Prologue: The Great War

It began witout warning and without mercy. In the far north of the Crystal Empire Shining Armor and a very laden pregnant Cadence rushed along; Shining ushered his wife into the carriage outside the castle and looked up in frantic worry at the massive portal swirling above the city. Monsters were literally raining from the sky. falling without end and descending upon the quickly diminishing army. Equus was a land of peace, a place of friendship and harmony, no army truly knew how to wage war, there hadn't even been an intentional murder in all of recorded history! but the creatures that landed form the portal above... calling themselves Outsiders were true soldiers, true killers. Ponies were cut open with blades, shot with guns that were several times more advanced than the flintlocks that the richest soldiers from noble families possessed, and some were torn apart by telekinesis stemming not from magic but from some unkown alien energy.

The city was nearly lost when Shining gave the order to retreat southward. After something... massive dropped from the sky... the city was beyond hope. A colossal being of green skin with bloated torso, clawed fingers, bat wings and a had with a mass of tentacles for a mouth bearing yellow eyes that caused irreversable madness to any who looked upon them. The massive Great Old One was like destruction incarnate, swings of his arms toppled the castle towers while stomps of his feet split the earth apart in giant fissures. And that unholy roar... upon hearing it the soldiers within range would draw their daggers and slice their own throats.

Shining and Cadance huddled together in the carriage as two Ground Wyverns pulled it at awe inspiring speeds darting down the snow laden road with only a small company of surviving soldiers. the civilians were already evacuated long ago and though it would stain Shining's pride for all time he had to admit to himself that he should have evacuated himself and the army along with them. Trying to stay and fight... was the greatest folly of his command.

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Day 1

The Crystal Empire has fallen. Equus population stands at 98%

XXXXX

Celestia sat at the war council table along with her sister, the yak prince, the dragon lord, the chief shaman of zebrica, warlord of the griffon lands, prime minister of the minotaurs, even Queen Chrysalis was there.

The rest of the world had fallen. While the prime portal opened in the Crystal Empire, several smaller ones opened in the other lands and anihilated their military might. Equestria, the largest and most powerful land was the last resistance to stand against the invasion. Refugees flooded in from all the other races and their leaders formed an alliance of necessity with the Equestrian royalty. While many fell, there were still those who resisted the might of the Outsiders. For the first time in history a new armada was formed of all the races of Equus. Lands with rivalries, races with blood feuds, kingdoms with old grudges were forced to stand by each other's side.

Discord had eventually appeared after a 'vacation' and claimed he would rid the world of the problem by himself. For a few days it seemed he would win. Snapping away Outsiders left and right, summoning nonsnsical but deadly siege weapons to thin their numbers... but then the invaders sent in their trump card for the first of what would be many times... the being that would become known as Grimm. When the sun set on the day he entered their world Discord was not alive to see it.

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Day 6

Zebrica, Labyrinthia, The changeling hives of the Badlands, Griffonia, Yak Yakistan have all fallen. Equus population stands at 71%. Hero Casualties: Discord.

XXXXX

With the combined might of all the remaining militaries they at least managed to slow the Outsider's progress. After a few weeks Starlight's village was lost along with Baltimare. The remaining cities erected city walls, strongholds, and the police were conscripted into military. The death of Discord was disheartening for such a powerful being to be defeated, but what happened next struck the heart of Equestria. The Wonderbolts as a technical branch of the military were sent into battle as a hit-and-run rappid strike force to break the enemy's defense before other units would charge in. It was effective... for a while...

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Day 32

Starlight's Village and Baltimare have fallen. Equus population stands at 68%. Hero Casualties: Discord, Rainbow Dash.

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Emergency proceedures were put into place. Alongside the refugees flooding into cities and emergency shelters there needed to be a plan for the future. The Disamond Cave Initiative... if Equestria fell. An idea was proposed that was dismissed as barbarism at first but... not after the next heavy loss... the idea was to commit mass genocide on the Diamond Dogs in the southern badlands and hide all of the children too young to fight. Within these subterranian caves they would be safe from the carnage and hidden from the world with an immeasurably powerful spell. Even if ponies, changelings, zebras, griffons, and all other creatures died... at least... at least the next generation would live. First vote for the Diamond Cave Initiative received 28% for. and 72% opposed. Re-vote scheduled for the following month.

Fluttershy and Twilight were appalled at this proposition and poured themselves into research. Fluttershy regained the forgotten arts of the ancient Druids and raised part of the Everfree itself to fight. Twilight began unethical experiments on captured Outsiders to learn biological weaknesses, screams constantly rang from the basement of the library.

With the combination of the Everfree, ancient druid magic, and the results of Twilight's research they joined the front lines.

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Day 89

Fillidelphia and Manehattan have fallen. Equus population stands at 60%. Hero Casualties: Discord, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle. Re-vote for Diamond Cave Initiative received unanimous approval.

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Onyx, a small grey Earth Pony with a black mane and steel blue eyes looked around Las Pegasus with wide eyed wonder. His family came to visit for a week but got stuck when the war began; refugee laws strictly enforced limitation on intercity travel. The little colt didn't truly understand the weight of what was happening or the nervous faces of the ponies and other creatures shuffling by. Instead he looked up at the rainbow that perpetually arched across the city sky. The tiny 5 year old clapped his hooves in delight as the light shined.

But something was happening. He saw one of the heroes Pinkie Pie bouncing around with a bunch of signs he could barely understand and cocked his head as he heard her yelling about 'evacuation' and 'make sure to not panic! that's no fun!'

She shrugged and went about playing with the tufts of cloud underhoof. Then his mother charged up to him and snatched him up before looking to his father "Do we have everything?!" she asked in panic. His father panted "Ya... ya we do. And I managed to get the last pass for the Diamond Cave 16. they won't start selling the ones for 17 until tomorr-" Onyx couldn't hear the rest of what his father said as something loud like thunder clapped in the sky. All the houses started shaking and the cloud floor started swaying.

"um, ok! You all reeeaaallly need to evacuate!" Pinkie shouted.

Onyx felt nauseous as his parents rushed him to the last airship at breakneck speed. He shook his head and regained cohearance as his family boarded the ship. Pinkie hopped on as well as it began to take off from the city which was now host to several explosions and the sound of clashing weapons. magic blasted out into the air and the pretty rainbow faded. Onyx frowned as the pretty colors disappeared.

Pinkie moved her hoof around she mentally counted "... we're missing 8 ponies..." and leapt back onto the clouds. Several ponies yelled after her but she was already gone. Onyx saw Cloudsdale get further and further away as the ship soared and began to wonder if he was dreaming because it looked like the city was moving... or... sinking?

"oh gods..." a griffon gasped "the... the city is crashing!" Crashing! that was the word! Las Pegasus drifted through the air as it sunk with a warzone igniting the city, the floating metropolis was heading for Manehattan while colliding with Cloudsdale along the way. He heard the firing of a canon and squinted his eyes to see a jack in the box fly through the air from the falling city before landing on the deck of the ship. Everycreature yelped and jumped back but the foalish curiosity pushed Onyx to approach the box and begin turning the handle. The old jingle played and when it opened, 8 ponies popped out of the box in surprise landing on the deck with frightened and very confused faces. family members rushed to them with hugs and tears, Onyx looked back at the box and saw a picture of three baloons on it.

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Day 127

Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and Las Pegasus have fallen. Equus population stands at 51%. Hero Casualties: Discord, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie.

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Rarity noddd as tears fell from her face. She had made up her mind even as the Princesses looked upon her with pained hearts. Rarity stood with all the Elements of Harmony on her person in the middle of a ritual rune. "M... my fr-friends are w-waiting for me." she stuttered between sobs. The princesses nodded with their own teary faces and activated the rune. In an instant, Rarity's life force was extinguished and the elements broke into raw energy that any immortal could absorb be they bearer or not. The energy flowed into Celestia and Luna turning them into gods.

Grimm was coming... whenever Equus started to get the slightest bit of a lead, the Outsiders would send Grimm to anihilate the advantage... they sent Grimm to kill Discord... to kill over half the Element bearers... and now he was sent to kill the Princesses. Chrysalis and Thorax stood strong, in the time of the war the cooperation had changed some of the changelings into an 'ascened' form with Thorax having the most drastic increase in power. "They're coming" Chrysalis warned as she looked to the north. Aside from Grimm there were two other trump cards that the Outsiders held, Eldroggxioth who was currently anihilating Van Hoover and the Cleric who was heading this away along with Grimm.

Thorax looked at the peak of Canterlot Mountain "One of them is here." he and Chrysalis nodded to eachother before teleporting to the mountain top while the Princesses turned as the retinue of royal guards surrounding them were turned to red paste and diced limbs in an instant. Blood rained as a dark figure slowly approached. Luna growled "of course we get the hard one..." she and her sister exploded in a wave of energy as they ascended to divine forms, and before them Grimm approached.

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Day 233

Van Hoover and Canterlod have fallen. Equus Population stands at 22% not counting the children hidden away. Hero Casualties: Discord, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Queen Chrysalis, Prince Thorax, Princess Luna, Princess Celestia. Equestria's spirit is broken.

XXXXX

A muscle bound Griffon covered in scars and a chipped beak walked through Ponyville and lowered his little chick to the ground with a wing. "Don't stray too far Myze, we're just stopping here to resupply. After that we're heading for the Diamond Caves." The tiny 5 year old griffon with the front half of a black eagle chirped "ok!" in a little squeaky voice and ran through the town. The mercenary went to the market with a bag of bits.

A 5 year old Unicorn/Changeling hybrid with a red coat, yellow eyes with diamond pupils and a short frazzled amber mane poked at a dead flower a few times before yelling "Awwwise!" the flower remained innert.

"HI!" a voice called out making the foal scream as he jumped. He whipped around to see a griffon chick, "I'm Myze! who are you?"

"Uh, um..." the colt stammered "Im uh... Grotimnos..."

Meanwhile the mercenary filled up his back while asking the locals "how close have they gotten?"

Carrot Top sighed "scouts say they'll be around the corner any second... some say next week, some say tomorrow. Everycreature is getting ready to pack up and leave. There's a whole caravan of carriages and wagons hooked up to the fastest race wyverns."

The mercenary gave a sad nod.

Over in the middle of town, Grotimnos was rolling several balls at Myze while yelling "summuh zombwee! Skeweon wawior!" While Myze would swat at them with a stick yelling "I am da unbeawul bersuhkwer! Your undie army will ne'er stop me!"

"Well den, I wul jus' have to waise a Deawth Knight! Muahahaha!" Grotimnos cackled in an adorable voice.

Myze looked up "Wat dat?"

Grotimnos turned to see a group of Outsiders entering form the forest. Most were bipedal pink fleshed creatures with yellow eyes and four tendrils hanging form the face as well as tendril fingers. But among the group was a taller green one with cat slit pupils and five tendrils on the mouth along with clawed fingers.

Ponies screamed as they saw the Outsiders and ran for their lives. The green one pointed to the fleeing civilians and the pink ones charged them with bloodlust. As it walked it spotted the two children and pointed at them. One of the pink ones began running towards them with a bastard sword raised above its head.

Young as they were, the two didn't fully understand what was happening, too shocked by the appearance of the strange things and the bizaare sight of red water pouring out of ponies and minotaurs as the guards were killed.

As the Outsider came within five feet and roared ready to bring down its blade, a throwing axe slammed into its face slicing into the brain and sending it flying back onto the ground. Myze's father ran in and scooped the little chick up while a Changeling stallion grabed Grotimnos.

"Is the caravan ready to go?" Myze's father asked in a hurry.

Grotimnos' father nodded "we have to move fast, they're just about to leave."

The parents ran for the east end of the city and reached the caravan. with a crack of the reins, the wagons dashed off at high speed. Huddled close by this parents, Grotimnos poked his head out and saw Ponyville fading away as smoke and magical fallout filled the sky.

"The driver said we'll be passing Dodge junction and heading straight for the badlands since the Outsiders will probably follow us... they... they'll be slowed down as they... attack the city..." The mercencary said. It was... painful... knowing that they would be using a city as essentially a sacrificial lamb to buy them time... but they could no longer weep for the hopeless. Almost all the Diamond Caves were filled. This caravan had the last group of families that could afford the exorbitant prices as the number of open caves got smaller. Faust help the poor children left behind...

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Day 302

Ponyville and Dodge Junction have fallen. Equus Population stands at 12% not counting the children hidden away. The rest of the world the other countries are in complete ruin. And Equestria is not far behind.

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A small 5 year old Griffon hummed as he walked along. Palm Tree picked up his ball and began playing, kicking and chasing it to the edge of Appleoosa. The city was surrounded in a thick fog. A powerful ancient earth pony magic ritual that kept the town hidden. Not as powerful as the one that hid the Diamond Caves but similar in principal. Only problem was that it required a lethal amount of energy...

"AJ, you can't keep doing this... let... let sompepony els-" "no consarn it!" Applejack yelled at her cousin. She was thin, her ribs shown and her eyes were sunken with dark circles surrounding them. Her legs were shaky and barely held her up while her mane and tail had lost all luster.

For the families who couldn't afford the last few open Diamond Caves this town became a temporary sanctuary. The spell concealing the city was powered by Earth Pony life force but required a monstrous amount. for normal ponies three would have to give their entire lives to power it for a day. But as the last living Element Bearer Applejack was infused with an unnatural amount of Harmony Magic which empowered her life force several dozen times above that of a mortal. She was techinically immortal and maybe even invincible... once... but for over two months she had been sacrificing her immortality to power the shield... and that source of life force was running out...

Braeburn looked on the verge of crying as Applejack staggered her way unsteadily to the ritual rune in the center of town. "Aj... you won't survive much longer..." Braeburn pleaded.

"I'm... fine... with... that.." Applejack huffed "mah friends... are all... waitin'... fer me... so Ah... Ah will... use... every last... breath... to pro... tect creatures... like they was... until... Ah see 'em again..." Finally the Earth Pony reached the rune and it lit up as she lifted into the air. But there was something wrong...

Applejack yelled as pain coarsed through her.

"What's wrong?!" Braeburn yelled.

"Th... they're tryin'... ta force... the barrier down!" she struggled and sweat as her life force poured into the shield with greater furvor "Ah... Can't... hold it!" even as she over charged the shield, some force on the outside was like a battering ram against a city gate, each slam caused tiny cracks in the defense which added up over time until...

"AAAAGGHHHHH!" Applejack spasmed violently before the light faded and she fell to the ground. Braeburn ran over to her crying her name and cradled her head, but for naught. The last vistages of Applejack's life force were finally gone...

Out on the edge of town, Palm Tree chased the ball to the fog wall. Only it wasn't a fog wall anymore... he stopped and blinked as he looked up at the mist slowly parting until two figures were seen. The two were widely known as part of the three trump cards of the Outsiders and both looked very strange. Eldroggxioth snorted "Told you their magic is weak."

Grimm chuckled "or you're just overpowered. Probably both. Anyway..." he looked down at Palm "ah! well hello there teeny weeny birdie!" Palm Tree jumped back "you stwanger! Mama says don talk ta stwangers!"

Grimm stared for a few seconds and then cackled hysterically "oh man! oh... oh geeze... oh that made my day..."

While Grimm was laughing, Eldroggxioth was glaring with disgust "kill it." he spat.

"Woah! Chill out dude, we don't murder todlers! or chicks I guess? whatever, we don't kill kids!" Grimm admonished "we have people to do that FOR us."

The mist behind him faded completely revealing an army of Outsiders and he looked down at Palm again "you should probably run."

And run he did.

Palm Tree sprinted into the town screaming bloody murder. The frantic ponies surrounding Applejack looked up with terrified eyes and pale faces as their blood ran cold. The Outsiders were already here...

What followed was in essence pure chaos. Creatures screaming and running, guards trying and failing to fight. Outsiders spilling through like a tital wave of death as they sliced and psionically ripped creatures apart. Soon the streets ran red with blood. Fires popped up consuming several houses, Palm Tree ran in random directions as he panicked. The city didn't look familiar anymore it was covered in red and the houses were candles, he couldn't tell which was the way home! Fortunately he didn't have to as a talon suddenly scooped him up. His mother carried him back to their house where his father finished packing the essentials and they ran to the barber shop. Palm's mother banged frantically on the door. A pony answered while yawning "geeze what is all that racket?"

His eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he looked at the carnage of the city "Fucking Faust!"

"Please..." Palm's parents pleaded.

This pony who was a very close family friend had in secret built an underground bunker as a response to any zombie apocalypses but now... it was the only truly safe place.

The Pony looked uncomfortable "you know... you know its only meant for one"

"Are you going to let us die?!" the mother shouted.

The pony sweated as he looked around out the window at the carnage "gods damn it fine!" he ushered them in and opened the blast shelter door hidden under a carpet. After the griffons went down the stairs, the pony followed while throwing the carpet over the slightly ajar hatch in such a way that it would cover the door once more when it was closed. He tried his damnest to ignore the screeming as the trap door shut.

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Day 361

Appleoosa, the last free city of Equus has fallen. 99% of all creatures aside from the hidden children have been slaughtered. The remaining will be hunted down in the coming years. Hero Casualties: All.

Equestria has fallen.

Equus has lost.

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Year one in cave 16.

Onyx explored the underground cave. He missed his friends. He missed his mom and dad. He missed home... But the crystal golem made it quite clear he couldn't see them again... ever... Each of the caves were outfitted with rations and a crystal golem programmed to provide education, medical attention, and surrogate parenthood for the foals.

As he miserably trotted through the cave he bumped into somepony who gave an "oof!" Rubbing his head he looked up and said "hey! wat where ya goin'!" And saw the prettiest filly he had ever met. She rubbed her own nose and glared at him "why don' YA wat out!" she blew a raspberry at him and walked away with a huff. Onyx blinked a few times and then ran after her "hey! Wana fwiends?!"

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Year 2 in cave 32.

Grotimnos had his nose burried in a book provided by by Teacher, or what he called the golem anyway. There was a remarkable amount of arcane knowledge in here. It seems that alongside the basics, each cave was outfitted with specific knowledge; some taught the children how to be warriors, some taught to be scouts, others taught wizards using the magic knowledge that Twilight had collected from the Outsiders as any race could use it... which was good since...

After the Outsiders won they did something to the planet... it messed with the natural magic of the various races. Changelings could not longer shapeshift. Earth Ponies could not command the ground. Pegasai couldn't fly. Unicorns couldn't use spirit magic. Zebras couldn't use shaman magic. It all just... stopped about a month after the Outsiders won. But strangely enough, ponies and other races could still learn and use the strange magic of the Outsiders. And while the magic that descretely hid the caves was effected the spell was so great in strength that it survived the magic purge, if just barely.

Grotimnos took a particular interest in the various schools of magic with a strong focus on one called Necromancy...

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Year 4 in the bomb shelter.

Palm Tree listened to the phonograph play in the background as he hummed.

His father sighed "something about dubstep coming out of a phonograph just feels wrong."

"Hey its still awesome!" the pony said while he and Palm's mother danced to one of DJ Pon3's records. A noise paused all their movements. Something knocing over the cans of food.

"... a rat?" Palm's mother guessed.

Palm walked over to the cans and then screem as something lept ontop of him. The others raced over only to see a large black cat laying ontop of Palm Tree like a bed and purring.

"big... cat..." Palm breathed out in a daze.

"what... is that thing? I've never seen a cat grow that big." the Pony inquired as he looked at it.

Palm's father's eyes widened "that... that's a Midnight Cat! A Shadow Elemental!"

The cat meowed as it turned into a gas like darkness that faded through Palm Tree and slithered over to one of the beds before re-solidifying in a curled up position and started napping. Palm hopped up on his talons and ran over to it. While petting the giant feline he smiled "let's call him Bemin!"

his mother frowned "our food is strained as it is already..."

the father shook his head "Elementals don't eat, they absorb ambient magical energy in the air surrounding their element... in other words by sitting in the dark it has all the food it needs."

The pony huffed "well great, now we have a mascot.

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Year 6 in cave 51

Myze ran through the cave while panting, he lept over the log placed as an obstacle and jumped at a cave ledge, as he tried to pull his hind legs up, a bola wrapped around his forelegs making him fall 9 feet onto the stone floor and probably breaking a bone or two.

Myze disintangled himself and glared at the zebra that got him "you're it!" and he ran off.

Myze got up and cracked his neck before running after the other adolescents. This wasn't their normal combat training. This was just a game. Bola Tag.

Myze ran through a series of winding hallways until he found an open area with several columns that the others were using to hide behind. Myze whipped the bola around and hurled it at one who tried runing for the next junction. It hit the Yak with one of the balls making contact with her mouth and knocking a tooth out. "you're it!" The others laughed as they ran from the screaming yak chasing them.

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Year 8 in cave 16

Onyx looked up as his marefriend aproached "so uh... happy anniversary I guess.." she said with a blush as she looked away and shoved a box into his face. Onyx blinked and took the gift. Opening it up he expected a new dagger or a set of throwing knives which was the norm for the thieves and assassins growing up in this cave but instead it was... a necklace with a gold locket. opening it he saw a very painstakingly crafted high quality painting of her smiling face.

The teenage mare was getting antsy as her blush grew larger "look, just say its stupid so we can move o-" she was cut off by a tight hug.

"... thank you."

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Year 9 in cave 32.

Grotimnos erected a shield as a minotaur sprayed a jet of fire at him. As soon as the flames faded he waved his hoof and a bright flash of light blinded the minotaur, Grotimnos used the opening to rush in and place his hoof on the bull realeasing a discharge of electricity that made him convulse beofre passing out for a few seconds.

"Winner, Grotimnos!" the Golem called out as most of the audience cheered while the others ripped up their losing bets and crossed their forelegs in a pout.

"you've progressed well Grotimnos, and despit the focus on Necromancy you haven't shirked your studies in illusion. Well done. Next Duel!" he hopped off the plat form as the next two mages took his and the now heavily disoriented minotaur's place.

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Year 10 in the bomb shelter.

"I have to!" Palm pleaded.

His coughing mother couldn't give a rebutle but his blind father could "you're too young! you won't survive out there!"

"Dad... I'm the only one who CAN survive out there..."

The pony missing a hind leg draged himself over on his crutch "you're the only one who isn't sick or injured... you have to stay that way."

Palm shook his head violently "that's exactly why I HAVE to go! we're out of food... again! And none of you can go out to get more... not again..." The food ran out a few years ago and the family had to brave the horrors of the outside but each time one went... they returned with scars. His mother now had some mysterious illness that left her nearly bedridden. His father was blinded by a monster's venom and their friend was crippled by a wild woof that literrally chewed his leg off.

"Please... I... I can't just sit and watch you all die..." His parents sighed. they knew he was right.

"just... promis-"

"I Promise I'll be back before you even know it!" Palm Tree chirped with a smile. Bemin rubbed his face against him "and you keep them company while I'm gone ok?" he patted the shadow elemental's head. Grabbing a large cargo packpack and some kitchen knives as makeshift weapons, he headed up the stairs and looked back at the family "don't worry, I'll be gone for maybe a day tops!"

The first few hours were spent digging through the ruins of the city and hiding from wolves. Eventually he surmised he had to make his way north towards Ponyville and more importantly, the Everfree. The forest would have tons of medicinal plants, edible berries and even streams filled with fish! As the sun set he saw something shimmering in the distance. Narrowing his eyes he approached the shimmering object with a meat cleaver drawn in caution. But as he approached, his eyes widened and he droped the weapon. it... it was so beautiful...

As if in a daze Palm stalked towards the light like a zombie until he was swallowed up by it...

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Year 12 in Cave 51

Myze and the others huddled around the crystal golem. Those who were once foals were now around the age of 17 or so and fully trained warriors from berserkers to agile duelists. And now these hardened fighters were crying like the children they once were. Sensei... what they called the crystal golem... was dying.

The golems only had enough energy to last 12 years. It was just a hunk of enchanted crystal but... to the children of the cave it was a friend, a mentor, a parent. Myze, now a hulking tank of a griffon in full platemail was shaking as he tried not to cry. The last glow of the crystals faded and the cretures wailed in sorrow. Myze punched the wall creating a vertical crater. Silent, he walked over to the armory and grabbed a double bladded great axe. He walked back out and looked over the weeping warriors, they wiped their tears and turned to him.

Myze swallowed as the axe felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. He was the strongest and toughest of them all. By the culture they had developed... he was now the leader. The one in charge... and the one responsible for guiding and protecting them from here on.

He held the axe and took a shaky breath "we..." he lifted and slamed the pommel into the stone floor holding the shaft near the blade like a knight. He needed to be strong. He neeeded to be brave. He needed to guide and protect them now. "WE! WILL! SURVIVE!"

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Year 15 the Badlands.

The new generation of adventurers... of heroes... begin their journey in this strange new world.


	2. Wrath of Rakyut pt 1

Ch2 Wrath of Rakyut pt 1

The sun shone low over the sky as dust blew past at an easy canter. Within the canyon and sand two beings took in the new sights: one a tall red Unicorn Insectoid whose features hid his Changeling heritage save for the holes in his legs hidden by the red socks adorned on his legs, a keepsake from his parents. The diamond pupils in his eyes gazed out from beneath an amber mane and his body continued along the sand covered in scalemail with a burlap robe; this was no common sight for a spell caster but the Necromancer had trained long and hard for the feat of casting despite wearing armor. The other figure was much larger and imposing, a Griffin with the front half of a black eagle and his body hidden under a black cloak but beneath the garment was a full suit of solid platemail made partially from metal and partially from the carapace and plates of chitin from durable monsters which swaddled his form.

The dry dunes of the surroundings are at once familiar as the hunting territory the two grew up in yet different as they approached the edges for they had spend the whole of their lives in the same place and such they could spot the stark contrast. It felt... as thought the world as they knew it was but a tiny grain of sand within a colossal desert. Stopping to rest and recover from the Badland's oppressive heat the two took notice of an armored pony laying in the dust.

The two young adventurers freshly of age 20 approached the corpse, it was a yellow Pegasus with a green mane laying dead in the sand perhaps a wayward traveler? One who by the looks of the marks on her armor did not survive a fight against the beasts of the wild. The two examined the corpse looking for anything that may be of use within the belongings as well as any signs of what might of caused her death, maybe they could even find out how recently this transpired... Her leather armor had been torn to ribbons by claws and fangs most likely from a large predator who did not frequent the badlands where these two adventurers originated from.

The large metal buckler and basket-hilt back-sword still remained in tact on the mare, the blade was caked in dry blood and her wounds looked as if made days ago with only the dry air, boiling sun, and freezing nights of the badlands having acted as reason to keep her body from rotting. She also had something one of the adventurers had never thought they'd see in the whole of their lives such as they were... a book!

For the two intrepid adventurers this was... unusual to say the least... after the Great War all foals and newborns were sent to the underground tunnels raised by programmed golems which fed and educated them. Something as... well normal as a book was practically alien. The adventurers were used to sprawling underground caverns the leftovers from the slain Diamond Dogs who were wiped out in a genocide to make room for the foals and toddlers so that the next generation might survive. But all this open air and large expanse... even written word was all just so... different!

The larger of the adventurers examined the book it seemed to be a manual on building the bare basics of the city; schematics for repairing and constructing buildings like hospitals, smithies, wells, plumbing etc. What a find! Perhaps if the adventurers found enough ponies they could use such a book to get a village maybe even a city back on its hooves. The large Barbarian tucked the book into his satchel and considered for a while before taking the rapier as well. The smaller half-Changeling-half-Unicorn looked the mare over before speaking "seems like she was in a losing fight.." before grabbing the buckler.

The imposing warrior nodded "indeed"

A bit of stale empty air blew passed while the two paused for a spell. They had been traveling together for a few hours but hadn't even spoken. Perhaps a side effect from being raised within the Diamond Dog Tunnels... everypony already knew everypony else so the idea of introductions was just foreign.

The smaller looked up at the large warrior "And you are?"

The Barbarian answered "Myze. You?"

"I go by Grotimnos, I take it you too came from the cave" the Necromancer answered back.

"One of many I gather" Myze quipped.

So many years had passed since the two last saw each other they hadn't even remembered each other's faces or names but then they were merely the smallest of foals at the time, little more than toddlers.

Grotimnos nodded "yes, shall we depart form this corpse?"

"sure" Myze agreed and the two proceeded north beyond the Badlands.

The rolling hills and empty valleys swept past them as the two marched along the hot sand with robes staving off the sun from their armor beneath. Myze's mind swirled to memories of the cave and his warrior's training learning how to move comfortably in the heavier armor; the plate was at once cumbersome and comfortable, overall it was heavy but that weight was eventy distributed along the whole of his body providing structural support allowing the weight to mostly be ignored as it did not press too much on any one part of his body. That being said things like sprinting or jumping and climbing, while certainly possible, would quickly tire him.

Grotimnos considered his repertoire of spells. Was there an arcane effect for staving off the heat or making encumbrance less... cumbersome? He was positive there was but did he possess such a spell readily available? Ultimately he didn't have time to ponder as the two came across an odd rock formation in the distance. As they grew closer and closer they found... that those were no rocks, they were buildings! Real actual buildings! Or at least they used to be... a derelict sign lay in the dust that could just barely be made out as "wel-me t- dodg- ci-y" several of the letters had worn away with time and neglect. The buildings were in absolute ruin practically obliterated remains, even the train tracks could be seen as only partial bars of rusted metal and rotted would in the dirt. They could also see what may have once passed as a farm some time ago in the distance.

Myze took in the sight "we should head for that farm first, there may be food and shelter in there." He had already been heading to the structure as he spoke before turning back to see what the half Changeling wished to do.

The Necromancer followed "good idea"

As the two shuffled through the corpse of a city they found strangely enough another pony looking through the ruins. A grey Earth Pony with a black mane and steel blue eyes wearing studded leather armor. Myze's joints and muscles tightened slightly in preparation for a sudden battle, he approached the figure warily and asked "hello? Who are you?"

The affore mentioned grey pony stiffened at the stranger's greeting. He had not been expecting anyone to be out here, thus he was caught off his guard which was quite unlike the Rogue. Quickly he assessed these new ponies but saw no way out of this encounter. So instead he answered with the least amount of words "Onyx. Who are you?"

For a brief moment, Onyx's mind swam back to the old days when his journey began. Those days were merely... well, days ago. Like these two he had also emerged from the Diamond Dog caves suited up and ready to explore. Despite the open landscape making him easy to spot he still moved carefully and low to the ground through the Badlands as his training growing up had hammered into him 'in danger or potential danger, remain unseen and unheard' he too had come across this post apocalyptic city merely searching, for what he didn't know but search he did.

"I'm Myze, this is Grotimnos. What're you doing here?" the Barbarian asked.

The Rogue looked to the ruins of the city "these," he motioned to the derelict buildings with a hoof. Onyx deduced that these new ponies would most likely not attack but still, he didn't want to stick around to find out. He turned to his left and began to walk away with a "nice meeting you."

As the new pony began to leave the group noticed a very particular building in the distance next to the farm. A school house! Where there's a school there's books! And right now knowledge on the old world would be the most pertinent to all three. Onyx saw the building and recognized it from the teachings of the golem in his cave. He knew that ponies were taught there with books, there heads were filled with word burgers and smarts. So he headed that way. Myze looked at Grotimnos, shrugged and followed Onyx towards the building as did the Necromancer.

XXXXX

A small journey later and Onyx neared the building, he was aware of the ponies behind him but made no indication otherwise. Instead he observed the school building. Looking it over hither and tither. After gazing the three pushed open the old protesting doors of the surprisingly still standing structure. The adventurers found a ruined set of classrooms. The boarded up windows left the halls with little light and the thick cloud of dust obscured their vision. There are posters nailed to the walls. Art projects of foals but the images while childish were depictions of burning houses and ponies ripped apart by some unusual monster of which the adventurers had never seen before. Some pictures just had poorly drawn ponies lying face down in the grass with red crayon chaotically scribbled all around the field. Others had foals crying giant watercolor tears in front of the grave stones that said 'mommy and daddy'

Onyx looked at the drawings with a mixture of shock and wonder. He quickly dismissed the feelings and looked for possible threats in the rooms. The halls seemed for the most part empty yet... haunted. As the group slowly proceeded they heard a skittering faintly from one of the classrooms. Something small that moved fast and knocked into one of the desk legs.

"What?" Onyx whistled to himself. He tried to move quietly around the room to get a better look at the source of the noise while drawing his crossbow. Myze meanwhile followed drawing his double-bitted bardiche axe. Grotimnos headed to the other side with his war scythe drawn, mind calling upon his attack spells. The adventurers scanned the room as the skittering grew louder... then they saw a large acrylic glass-like spider half the size of a pony crawling slowly around the doorway of a classroom, it had four legs and a shiny green body. It saw the adventurers and let out a soft but extremely high pitched screech that tortured the sensitive Changeling ears of Grotimnos.

Onyx fired his crossbow form his hidden position while Myze charged in with his mighty axe. Onyx covered his ears after firing and backed up to create distance. The bolt skewered the creature to the wall killing it instantly. Myze looked around with the weapon drawn and heart pounding. He noticed dozens of the things all tround the room crawling out from inside of the desks dropping from the ceiling and emerging from the dark corners; they darted away from the adventurers as fast as they could crawl. Seemed like they're just big insects and lacked true intelligence. Once the adventurers showed temsleves as deadly predators the large glass spiders were terrified of them.

The adventurers collectively let out a breath as they began to relax.

"We call them Acrylic Tektites." The adventurers heard a soft voice say from the end of the hallway.

Myze whirled around towards the source battleaxe poised to strike before pausing and observing the figure.

It was quite an unusual being. Tall for one, twice a pony's height and standing on 2 legs with bizarre forelegs that terminated in hands. It was wearing a black trench coat-like robe with a hood and his face completely obscured in some unnatural shadow. On one hip was sheathed a blade shaped like a... kitchen... butcher knife? On the other was holstered a pistol, an item that the adventurers were aware of albeit in lesser forms like flintlock and clockwork but this design... it was too slender there was something odd about where the chamber met the barrel all in all a bazaar handgun, one that the adventurers would later come to know as a revolver or six shooter.

The tall bipedal creature sort of matched the description of an Outsider, the ones who invaded and wiped out the races of Equis. But where were the tendrils on the face? And its fingers should resemble tendrils or have very long nails, instead they seemed almost like Minotaur fingers.

"I didn't think there were any of you left... little Ponies and Griffins... even Changelings... but I'm starting to find more of you recently in small little groups. Its kind of cute. Like a pack of lost dogs." the being stalked forward to the adventurers who had their weapons at the ready. "I really hate killing cute things..."

"Like Hell!" Myze shouted bringing his axe to bear. "I'm not 'cute'!" he charged the alien beast swinging his axe.

"Wait," Onyx told the Barbarian putting out a hoof to stop him just in time. "they haven't made any move for their weapons. Maybe we could reason with it." with his own weapon still drawn but not exactly held threateningly he turned to the creature. "you're not an Outsider are you? You look like them but you're different."

Begrudgingly Myze stopped his charge halfway to the creature, he backtracked towards the others keeping his eye wearily on the figure the entire way, battleaxe still poised. "He said he wanted to kill us. That doesn't seem very friendly to me. Besides; he insulted me. And I can't rightly stand for that."

The being chuckled "'m not a typical Deep O... what you call Outsider no. I'm... something... special. In decades past when ponies were still common they gave me the name 'Grimm' something to do with a mythological being that harvests souls."

The adventurers didn't know... how could they know... how could they know that this was the monster... the god of death who singlehandedly slew half the Element bearers and killed the Princesses... how could they know they were standing before the most powerful being in the Outsider army save for the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods themselves... how would they ever know... they were so young at the time... poor fools...

"... so... do I kill him now?" Myze asked Onyx keeping this 'Grimm' in his sights.

"aww that's adorable, you think you can hurt me." Grimm laughed.

"ONYX?!" Myze asked seething with anger as his berserker fit began to climb up his throat like the vitriol of untamed rage. "buck it. I ain't waiting." Myze charged forward and swung down at Grimm who.. disappeared?! In one single instant he ceased to be in the same location as if instantaneously moving. Like he just... popped out of existence. The axe blade bit into the wood floor of the hallway. A voice form behind him said "what? You think I'm just gonna sit there and take it?" Grimm said with his hands clasped behind his head.

Grimm for his part merely stood casually and said "fighting me is a bad idea."

Onyx put his crossbow away "I'm not fighting you. He started this," he pointed at Myze "so he can finish it. I know when I'm out-matched."

Myze looked back "traitor!" but after a moment he put his weapon down "fine. I know when I'm outmatched."

Onyx faehoofed so hard the slap echoed throughout the city. Grimm put his hands down to his sides and though they could't see his face they heard a sad smile within his voice " there's more wisdom in that statement then you know... I wish I would have thought the same thing thousands of years ago..." Grimm locks his hands behind his head again "I don't have any orders to kill you. I'm a special mission type. Hunting down survivors falls outside my Jurisdiction. But uh... if you see any other Outsiders you should probably run or kill them on sight. But there's not many of us this far south so... It's safer to avoid going north."

With that he simply disappeared. No puff or flash or any sign of teleportation. Like before its as if he just... stopped existing. The adventurers don't know why but they have a strange instinctual feeling that they were unbelievably lucky to have survived that encounter. With the threat over. Myze rounded on Onyx. "You left me in the field of battle? That goes against a warrior's code. NEVER abandon a battle brother. Never."

"Pfht" Onyx let out a short laugh "I don't even know you, let alone trust you." the Rogue looked at him with a cold expression "what dream to you live in?"

"One where I trusted a rogue. I won't be dreaming that again." Myze turned, continuing the search of the school house. Onyx took a calming breath to push away the anger and whispered " let it out..."

Grotimnos continued searching the schoolhouse rooms, looking for anything of interest, but kept his guard for the appearance of any more spider-creatures. The group came across the principal's office. Inside they found a desk that had miraculously survived the wear and tear of time. Myze searched the desk. Within they found a basic spellbook for young mages. One of the knowledges cannibalized from the Outsiders. The Outsiders did something to the world that rid it of pony magic but thanks to the efforts of Twilight Sparkle (rest her soul) it was found that any creature could utilize their brand of magic.

Myze took the book and showed it to the group. "This may be useful later. Spells could come in handy if we run into tall dark and creepy again." Grotimnos took and pocketed the tome to study later, Myze then looked around "should we continue searching this place or leave? I saw a few interesting ruins whilst we were wandering around the town, we could check those out." Indeed with nothing else of interest the adventurers left the school. A search through the ruins showed little of value and after clearing out the rest of the acrylic tektites and the ruins wounds up secure.

"HEY! IS ANYONE HERE?!" Myze shouted, his voice echoing through the abandoned town, then he turned and shrugged to the others "it's worth a try." the sound echoed dully in the air.

"let's go look around and search the surrounding areas close to the city for makeshift settlements around here." Grotimnos aid heading East.

Onyx pulled his mask over his muzzle. "we should split up and scout around. If finding other ponies is your goal then we should find camps, or settlements. I'll look around, and if I find any pony I'll come find you." he left the others in search of ponies within the opposite direction.

Myze nodded "agreed" he pulled his cloak tighter around himself, continuing east. After a couple hours of searching Myze found a large settlement, a ring of stakes pointing outwards surrounding a dozen makeshift huts where ponies and zebras were wondering around. Myze approached the settlement warily, un-slinging his axe and drawing his cloak tighter around himself. "I need to speak with whomever is in charge of this settlement." he called out approaching the nearest pony. The ponies and zebras wearing desert garb and large ornate masks looked to each other and continued their way. One of the armed zebras however approached Myze "you leave the caves too? We get new ponies almost every week it seems."

"I did. Howe long have you been here?" Myze re-slung his axe hoping his act of non-aggression would encourage the other to do the same. As he did this, he kept his hoof on the rapier he retrieved earlier.

"about a year or so. Not much going on aside from... well... some bizarre things have been happening. See there's a giant quarry nearby the village that's just loaded with strong rocks and this weird type of stone that purifies water. So naturally we picked up where our ancestors left off. The mining equipment was all destroyed and tools in shambles but we've repaired that since. Anyway recently the miners have tunneled into some sort of tomb like a pyramid buried under a mountain. We've been collecting treasures from it to trade but ever since like 2 weeks ago we've been finding these cat statuettes and cat glyph drawings and cat-everything! We've also had some really strange things happening since the miners found the tomb. Tons of cats have moved into the village annoying everyone and some... strange 'accidents' have been occurring."

Myze did indeed take notice of the obscene number of cats sleeping on hut ceilings, running through the streets and getting chased away from food stalls by angry vendors with brooms.

"By the Sun and Moon. Cats. Why did it have to be cats?" Myze shuddered before turning back to the pony, "what kind of 'accidents'?"

The guard explained ""well, things like a merchant selling one of the statuettes and then drinking 2 gallons of cream afterwards thus killing himself. Or one guard who smashed a cat with a mace and killed it was found dead later having fallen into the quarry pit form the scaffolding. But the injuries from hitting the rocks were shaped almost like claw marks... things like that"

"before I can aid you, I will need to head back and retrieve the rest of my party." Myze told the pony, not waiting for a response he headed back to collect the rest of the adventurers.

XXXXX

Since Onyx didn't find anything he went back to the spot where the group split up. When Myze showed up he found Onyx looking at a locket that he wore, staring pensively into the contents.

"come on I found a settlement. They need some help." Myze paused noticing the locket. "found something?"

Onyx looked up at the Barbarian and stashed the locket. "no, its nothing. So you fond others? What's the issue?"

"The situation is... bad. They have a case of one of the worst infestations I've ever seen. Given, I've only seen one other but they're in dire circumstances." Myze replied.

The Rogue fixed him with a stare "what. Is. It."

Myze shuddered "cats... hundreds upon thousands upon millions of cats (OK maybe he was exaggerating) Its horrible. Also there are a bunch of strange circumstances involving ponies dying. But most importantly, we have to liberate the villagers."

Onyx tilted his head "... Cats? I've heard of those in my lessons. Aren't they supposed to be small 'pets'?"

"By the stars I wish they were. But these ones are terrifying. Small, unpredictable, with razor like claws and teeth, and eyes that glow mirror-like in the half-light. Soulless beasts with little care for other life. They will not hesitate to kill us when our backs are turned. We must hurry back, I dread what those creatures have done to the villagers in my absence." Without waiting for response Myze began to head back towards the village.

"Alright. Let's see these beasts." Onyx followed Myze in the direction he went along with Grotimnos.

When the adventurers arrived back at the village Myze went and searched for the pony he had talked to previously. The group found all the guards kicking cats out of the village (literally) at first Myze wondered why they weren't killing the beasts but remembered the story of the one guard who did. Myze gathered they'd become paranoid and superstitious. Onyx looked at the cats seeing them for the first time "those aren't menacing. Maybe annoying, but not scary at all."

"they're horrifying. Creepy little things." Myze shuddered, trying to suppress his repulsion. "We need to find the pony I talked to before"

Onyx followed Myze "I'll let you do the talking."

"Fine, let's find somecreature who can guide us. He said something about an underground temple in their quarry. We need to check that out." Myze searched the village and as the adventurers wade through the horde of cats and guards chasing them off, they came across a merchant selling snake skins. As he tried to interest the adventurers several cats dashed into the stand and snatched the snake skin from his hooves before shredding it to pieces in abject rage with foam in their mouths. Once the snakeskin was destroyed they stumbled for a bit before running off as the guards caught up. The merchant grumbled "that's the 5th snakeskin these little demons have ruined this week!"

"I can see how THAT can be menacing" Onyx said to Myze.

"I told you they are awful things." Myze turned back to the merchant. "what do you know about these... beasts? Where did they come from? What about these accidents I've heard about? How can we get rid of them?"

"gods if only we knew. Our village chief has been consulting with our wise mare all week but still nothing. If you want to help I'm sure the chief would gladly accept your assistance. But for now we have to-do you hear that?"

A loud drowning meow could be heard on the wind. The adventurers looked to the source and saw that all the cats had frozen. Their slit pupil eyes gazing toward the north even ignoring being kicked by the guards. From the far north the adventurers can see a shambling figure. Something large... it... looked like a Diamond Dog. but no... looking at the shape of its head and tail... a Diamond... Cat? What are they called again? Abyssinians?

Its gait was awkward to say the least almost like it was stumbling along dragging itself forward. Its body was covered mostly in wrappings and the adventurers could see its bones beneath the jerky-like parchment thin skin. It was heavily emaciated and its feline eyes were dull almost grayed out and lacking any intelligence.

Myze raised his hooves in the air n an 'alright, fuck this' gesture "nope! Nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Have fun. That is WAY above what I am willing to do." he pointed to the shambling figure. "I am okay with Outsiders, giant spiders, whatever Grimm was, but that is an incarnation of the dark gods. An unholy beast whose sole purpose is to spread terror and death.

He turned around, shoving past the gathering crowd and began to walk away.

Onyx looked at the approaching... thing. "what is that?"

Upon closer inspection Grotimnos' Necromancy training told him that the mummy wasn't that imposing.

"... Fine" Myze pulled out his battleaxe preparing to fight with the spawn of the underworld.

Onyx un-slung his crossbow ready for a fight.

Grotimnos began, he charged the mummy with his scythe low for an upper cut slash "yaaaarrr!" and sliced the damn thing clean in half. Sand spewed forth form its wound and it fell limp ot the ground. Then it slowly turned to dust. A small wisp of ghostly energy lifted out form the dust and flew off towards the quarry. All the attacks against it as it went passed through harmlessly.

"oh thank the heavens. That was horrifying." Myze sheathed his axe.

"Nice swing" Onyx put his crossbow away and investigated the sand, even though he didn't expect to find anything.

Grotimnos shrugged "it's just a little kitten, almost makes me feel bad. Almost."

Myze glared "it was the spawn of abominations and deserved a fate far worse than it received." he turned away from the sand and the others then back to the merchant.

As Grotimnos looked around the cats shrieked and hissed before sprinting off through the village exits finally giving the village some peace. The guards collapsed in exhaustion and the villagers cheered the adventurers. One villager came up to the group "thank you so much. You have no idea how much you have helped us. Please, see our village elder mayhap you can help him and the wise mare find a way to keep those infernal cats out for good!"

Onyx agreed "let's go then, please lead the way."

The adventurers met up with the village elder who was consulting with a zebra wearing tribal piercings and rings. "hmm, if that's our only lead then we'll have to go for it but all the guards are-hm?" the village leader looks over to the adventurers "oh! you must be the ones who killed that vile... thing and drove off the cats. Thank you, you've bought a few days of peace for us."

Grotimnos nodded "yes, one of your villagers told us you needed some help with keeping the cats at bay?"

After which Onyx added "of course. If I may ask, what is it you two were talking about when we came in? It seems pertinent to us helping you with your current... issue."

The elder sighed "yes... we've been trying to get rid of the beasts for some time but they just keep coming back! but... our wise mare may have found something of a solution. She has seen a staff in her visions. A staff shaped like writhing serpents. Her visions tell that this staff may be the key to ending this infestation. And the last mining report had an inbound shipment form the quarry filled with gems, gold, and a staff. Unfortunately it was set upon by bandits. I wish to send my guards but they are occupied with protecting the villagers and miners. Please, find the stolen cart and retrieve the staff. You can have what ever treasures were in the cart as payment."

Myze jumps and cheers "OH YES! NO CATS! Ahem, hem... I mean... I believe we can be of help with this. Which way do you think the staff is located right now?"

As he waited for and answer, Onyx spoke "bandits. Bandits are just bullies, and bullies can be dealt with, I'm helping, are you two in?"

Grotimnos considered "I think we may need some more motivation, merchants these days are quite pricey."

"The bandits were last seen by the surviving miners who escaped them in between the village and the quarry to the north." The village leader motioned over to some ponies who brought a satchel to the adventurers. "as for your other concern may these aid you in your hunt and serve as formal payment."

Inside was 3 minor healing potions for each of the heroes.

Myze hoisted his axe on his shoulder "sounds good. We should get going. Those bandits won't slaughter themselves." he turned, intent on heading straight to the bandit camp.

Grotimnos looked to the elders "consider this deed done good wise mare"

XXXXX

The adventurers headed off to the north. After an hour of traveling the sun began to set. The adventurers ate some of their rations and spotted a campfire in the distance. Around the fire seemed to be several ponies, griffons, and a few changelings. The adventurers hadn't been noticed.

Time to crack some skulls.

(Author's note. wow we've come so far in this campaign we are actually almost done! Its been 3 years of adventuring and we've accomplished so much. I want to thank the players of Grotimnos, Myze, Onyx, and Pilpher who will be showing up later on in the story. This whole thing would not exist without you guys and I feel honored to have DMed for such dedicated role players. This story will be divided by adventures, when one ends the next begins but some downtime may be included in the next adventure at the start. I'm breaking the adventures up into 5k word chapters cause of how long they are now of course this means the last chapter may only have 2000 words in it cause that may be all that's left and if the climax is in that chapter that's fine, if not then the last chapter will just be a long one like 7k or something. Anyway thank you all so much for reading and I'll see yall in the next chapter!)


	3. Wrath of Rakyut pt 2

Ch3 Wrath of Rakyut pt 2

Grotimnos whispered to the other heroes "should we make contact?"

Onyx responded with a quiet whisper of his own "do any of you have a weapon I can borrow? I may be able to take a few down without them noticing."

The Barbarian snorted "I say we charge. They'll expect nothing and we can slaughter them before they know we're here." he considered for a moment after that and continued "actually yea sure, you can use this rapier. Do you need a shield to go with it?"

Before the Rogue could answer the Necromancer tilted his head "what happened to the crossbow?"

"it's right here, but I can probably get a couple of them with melee strikes." Onyx looked at Myze with a small bit of surprise as he took the rapier. "...thanks." he looked back at the group of bandits.

Grotimnos looked around "hmm, Onyx you take the front, me and Myze will flank them from the other side and when I make the signal we all attack"

Most of the bandits were sitting around the fire lounging but 2 were taking a leak away from the light.

Myze made a 'tch' sound "leave it to a rogue to skulk in the shadows taking out single combatants when they could be in the gray of battle, bathing n the blood of multiple foes." he shook his head before turning to the caster "so then is that the plan? Why don't we have Onyx distract them by going for the stragglers on the edge whilst we have some fun with the main group?"

Grotimnos put a hoof to his chin as he pondered "even better, you and I take the stragglers while Onyx goes for the one by the fire and maybe we can save some fowl for dinner"

Myze either wasn't paying attention to the cannibalism comment of his own species or just didn't care, Onyx meanwhile inspected the loners "I may be able to take out those two. You should wait for me to take them. Unless all of Tartarus breaks loose."

Myze nodded "we take down the two away first. Onyx make a distraction by going for those two; then as the rest of the group turns to the noise Grotimnos and I will take 'em from the sides. How does that sound?"

"OK But wait for me to take down the two over there. If you start a ruckus I'll lose my advantage" Onyx replied. With a nodding agreement from Onyx Myze drew his axe "of course, but make some noise killing the second one, we're going to need that slight distraction to gain an advantage over the group. Once you finish with those other two cover us either with your crossbow or rapier."

Myze readied for battle "Alright go get those two but wait half a minute so Grotimnos and I can get into position. Be silent and the moment an alarm goes off we attack."

Grotimnos waved a hoof magicking the fire out "let's have some fun." the fire vanished with his smile.

Onyx slipped into the shadows with a chuckle "let's." he moved over to the west side of the campfire, once there he sneaked to the group carefully but not careful enough one of his joints cracked as he moved making the slightest of sounds. The half Changeling bandit's ear perked at the noise and whipped around to see Onyx closing in, the bandit fell back into a pile of armor. Onyx took the basket hilt back-sword and rushed in with a deep lunge skewering him in the chest. The hybrid yelped in pain alerting the others.

"Well that didn't work. Oh well, its more fun like this!" Myze charged at the bandit camp battleaxe raised followed by the Necromancer. The other straggler attacked Onyx but the Rogue caught the blow on his shield and twisted his hoof deflecting the strike. Two bandits attacked Myze but their blows glanced harmlessly of his platemail. Two bandits struck at Grotimnos with one blow bouncing off his armor and the other missing as the caster dodged.

Myze went to finish off the wounded bandit with his own rapier shiskebobing his skull. Grotimnos lifted his sickle and swiped at one of the bandits taking his head off with a torrent of blood. Myze went for one of the flanking bandits and his axe blade split the mare's head open digging into her chest with a mighty overhead swing. Onyx quickly darted over to the next bandit taking a swing with the rapier and knocking the defending blade out of the way giving path for a thrust that impaled the bandit through his chest.

The bandits fighting Myze and Grotimnos struck but their blows were knocked away or blocked. Snorting in anger Myze cleaved the attacking bandit on his right in half. Grotimnos stalked over to the injured one and said "keep this one alive Myze but her limbs belong to us now!" yet before he swiped his blade he considered the dismemberment causing bleed out and instead cracked the staff into her head knocking her out. Onyx ran up behind the second to last and ran him through with the stiff blade. The last bandit screamed in fear at the might of the attackers and dropped his weapons as he ran.

Myze scowled "darn he got away. We need to search this camp sight. Try to find anything of use in their gear and keep and eye out for that scepter." he searched the bandit camp. The adventurers collectively found the stolen treasure and amassed a total of 5690 bits worth of gold gems and silver. The chief promised half of this as payment which left the adventurers a nice little treasure to divide among themselves.

Myze looked at the treasure "I way we divide this evenly. We'll each get 948 bits and give the single extra to the next pony we see that needs it. Sound agreeable?"

The Necromancer nodded "sure, that works out, now for this one here" he gestured towards the unconscious mare. Nopony replied for a few moments and with a shrug Grotimnos cut off the limbs, wings, and finally gutted the pony before saying "who wants cupcakes?" Ignoring the other psychopath of the team Myze searched around and found a strange looking staff. Long wooden shaft with three golden snakes intertwined each head looking in a different direction.

Grotimnos idly used one of the severed legs to stoke the fire "has anypony checked their gear yet?"

The Barbarian poked around the corpses "no, I'll go do it. Dibs on any pole-arms." he searched each bandit individually but left Grotimnos' new... toy alone... he found a naginata, a kriegsmesser, a stiletto, some throwing knives, and a condottiero mace. The other two weapons he came across were of such poor quality that they were useless.

Myze pondered the finds "I'll take the mace if nopony's interested. take what you guys want and we'll sell the rest in that settlement. Speaking of, we should bring that scepter back to the village elder. Let's get going shall we? Unless of course you guys still need something around here?" When Myze grabbed the staff he screamed and passed out on the desert sand clutching the staff in a vice grip. Myze's mind was swimming, his eyes fluttered open and he looked around to see a dark room with no light source yet he could still see his own limbs perfectly. There was something below him, he looked down to see that he was lying n a bed of writhing snakes.

"Alright, that's odd..." Myze felt around to find the snakes were corporeal and that his equipment was still on him. There was naught but void above and below. But of in the distance he could see a large serpent who's moth was moving. He felt like it was saying something very important.

Meanwhile in the waking world Grotimnos heard Myze shrike and looked in his direction grabbing his sickle "What?!" he rushed over to the griffin.

Back in the vision Myze headed towards the serpent but kept his battleaxe hidden under his cloak as he approached. Myze was alone within the void as he got closer to the serpent, until giant cats rushed in from nowhere with gaping maws; Myze nearly panicked in his feline-phobia but the bed of snakes leaped out at the cats constricting them and biting. The close he got to the giant serpent the more giant and monstrous cats tried to stop him, but the boas and vipers protected him each and every time. So close Myze could almost make out what the serpent was saying. "thank gods for snakes yeesh" he muttered as he continued towards the massive reptile. Closer and closer, Myze could just make out one word "close" and then he awoke to Grotimnos shaking him.

Myze shot up rubbing his head "drat. We need to get back to the village. Grotimnos, you coming?" Not waiting for a response he took one last cursory glance around the camp-sight before heading back to the village like nothing was wrong. Grotimnos however picked up the gear and followed behind him yelling "Myze?! Wait! What happened?!"

"I fell into a pit of snakes, saw a big snake, and was attacked by cats. The big one said something sounded like 'close' we should ask the villagers once we get back to them. Do we have everything? Yes? Good. Onyx come on we're leaving." Myze rushed out with a cold glare holding a talon over his eye which throbbed with pain.

As the group headed back they encountered a giant pack of cats upsetting the villagers yet again, but as soon as Myze stepped in with the staff on his back it roared to life, the 3 snake heads writhed and hissed. Every single cat scrunched up and hissed back before running out of town dashing around guards and hopping over the village walls fleeing from the staff until every feline was gone and the snake heads calmed once more.

Myze breathed "I'm gonna need to keep this staff. It's a gods send." he headed towards the village center pulling the staff off his back as he did so. The villager who saw him rushed up in gratitude "thank you! Once again you have driven off those little monsters." The wise-mare trotted over "I see you found the staff of my vision. Now your quest has come and risen. The spirits of the world have spoken and tole me of the staff's nature and the value of said token."

The chief nodded "the staff is an artifact. A holy relic created by the snake god of balance Pacifae. The staff's involvement is unsurprising considering Pacifae's immortal enemy is Entropy the cat goddess of chaos."

Myze blinked "sooo... Snake god hates Cat goddess? This entire thing is just one big cat fight between gods?"

The leader shook his head "no something specific is gong on. The two gods have been warring since time immemorial. Whats happening now is too... individual. Hmmm. Perhaps you should seek out the miner who found the staff. He might have found some glyphs around the relic that might clue us into what's happening. He lives in a small encampment near the quarry. His name is Tether."

The Barbarian nodded "alright then, off to find Tether. We'll keep the staff in case of more... felines" he headed towards the miner's encampment.

XXXXX

The adventurers traveled for a few hours before the sun set. They set up camp and used a few rations. Grotimnos finished eating and took first watch. Hours passed... just as Grotimnos was about to wake Myze for the shift change he heard the crinkle of sand and turned to see something moving slowly in the distance. Drawing his sickle the Necromancer slowly stood and stared down the creature. It was... it was the Diamond Cat form 2 days ago! It was headed for Myze shambling along. Grotimnos threw one of the throwing knives from the bandits in its path "look who came to play again!" The knife stuck into the mummy making it stumble back a bit but otherwise ignoring the attack as it continued heading for Myze.

Grotimnos charged the beast with his new Greatsword ready the creature was slow enough for him to get into melee range and he was a spell caster at heart no matter how much he trained to be a battle mage and over swung missing his target.

Myze and Onyx awoke to the shout and while the spell caster stood in the mummy's way it struck at Grotimnos backhanding him with such force that it flung him several feet through the air onto his side with shattered ribs. "fucking ow..."

Myze rose with a snarl and turned his head to see the undead. Letting out a (totally masculine and definitely not anything like a little filly) scream at the sight of the undying cat attacker he slashed with his axe. Due to how slow it was Myze had time to close the distance and sink the blade into the undead before it could do anything. As he struck the staff on his back sprung to life and the snake heads bit into the mummy causing it to howl and meow in an unholy keening while it raged and flied around, the snakes thrashing to and fro like attack dogs until the mummy collapsed into dust.

Myze shuddered in pants "gods I hate cats. I feel vindicated in my hatred now though." he turned towards the others, "we need to be on the alert for more of these things; it seemed to be more powerful this time than our last encounter."

Myze agreed "yea it seems like that staff attracts big cats. Maybe who ever is on watch next time keeps the staff near them so you aren't the main target every time?"

Myze nodded "that would be nice. ON the other talon the staff also seems to protect so I believe it would be best for the watcpony to carry the staff. Do you want to continue watch or should I take over? Onyx seems to have slept through the ordeal."

If Onyx had talons or claws he would have flicked Myze off, as it was he spat a raspberry.

When Grotimnos went to grab the staff it hissed at him and later Onyx; in fact not only did it not want anypony else to have it but Myze himself felt as if he couldn't bring himself to not have it on his person.

"oooookaaayy... guess I'll hang on to it then. I'll take the next watch, you lot get some rest. We've still got ground to cover tomorrow." Myze walked over to the fire and sat.

XXXXX

The next day the adventurers made their way to the minder's hut inside the miner greeted them.

Myze began "what do you know about this staff?" as he asked he pulled the relic form his back showing it to the miner.

Tether looked it over "oh right, yea I found that thing a week ago embedded into a slab. There were markings all around it and our local researcher finished inspecting it before sending it off to the village and moving onto this other artifact we found. The researcher can probably tell you more. She's just up the road in the lab near the quarry." he guided them to said researcher who's eyes sparkled at the sight of the scepter. The adventurers explained all they had found so far and got slammed with a veritable torrent of words.

"Ah that fits the last pieces of the puzzle together..." she mumbled "we found another artifact in the mines as well as various glyphs that I finally managed to translate. So the abridged version is that there are two gods, Pacifae and Entropy. There was a high priestess of Entropy an Abyssinian or Diamond Cat I guess anyway her power and influence grew such that she was a danger to the natural order. Thus Pacifae set his priests on a crusade to slay Rakyut the high priestess. But Rakyut was also blessed by her own deity with nine lives. Each time she dies, she comes back stronger with more powerful magic; because of this after killing her once the priests of Pacifae sealed her spirit inside a tomb using that staff. But after it was removed... she was free to be reborn. However her body is still frail and needs powerful magic to reach its full potential. Her final resurrection wouldn't be as strong as her third if the third was fully rejuvenated you see. The secret to rejuvenation for her body is in the second artifact we found" she gestured for the adventurers to follow.

The adventurers come to see a shield emblazoned with seven cats, 3 of whom are sleeping while the other 4 are awake. A few actual cats are pawing at it and meowing. The researcher shoed them of "this is a shield that's enchanted with life restoration. It needs a command word and the user must be loyal to Entropy, its already been used 3 times."

Myze rubbed his beak and pondered "huh. Do any of you like cats? we could use a little life restoration."

Grotimnos looked to the Rogue "I think Onyx should take it, I doubt Entropy would be very happy at how I killed her priestess twice already."

Myze nodded "agreed. Onyx you feeling one with the cats right now?"

As they spoke a low meow could be heard and the staff rose to life with a series of hisses. Behind the adventurers something stalked out into the light of the torch.

Rakyut in her third awakening. Myze rolled his eyes "oh buck it."

"Kitty! you came back to play!" Grotimnos readied his Greatsword "I got a new toy for us to play with too!"

Onyx cocked an eyebrow remembering the swing and a miss but didn't say anything.

Grotimnos charged the Abyssinian using his sword as a lance the blade pierced through the beast making it stagger back as it pulled itself off the blade with black ichor pouring from the wound.

Pushing Onyx behind him, Myze attacked the cat with the staff, the snakes leaped to life and snapped jaws onto the cat mummy making it yowl in pain. the bandages of the undead glowed in the design of veins as supernatural venom flowed through the monster, it staggered unevenly backwards losing its moment to strike.

Myze brought the staff down again, yelling as he did so. The staff hardened into metal and shattered the mummy like smashing sandstone into so much ruble spreading dust everywhere.

With a snort, Myze said "great now that that's done, why don't we take this cat shield with us?" he turned around looking back to the shield and the researcher.

Grotimnos made a sand castle with the mummy's remains "awww you broke her..."

Myze stared exasperated "get a hold of yourself stallion. You're playing n cat."

"well." Onyx cleared his throat "I think our next course of action is clear. Go to the quarry and seal the mummy in the tomb with the staff."

Myze rose an eyebrow in question.

Onyx shrugged "the staff was used to seal the mummy. It was removed during excavation and the mummy was released. Therefore we just repeat the sealing with the staff."

It made an incredible amount of sense. "ah right, I forgot during the excitement of that fight. Let's continue on then shall we?" Myze led the adventurers out the door.

XXXXX

The adventurers proceeded into the quarry and found it litered with cats some of which were being chased off others lounging on rocks or hissing at miners scaring them away. As the adventurers approached Myze became woozy and stumbled a bit before passing out. In his dreamscape he saw the massive basilisk in the distance and faintly heard "close... e... oom... lib..."

Myze stood with a start "oh buck. This again?" without pausing he sprinted toward the serpent straining to hear what it said.

Giant cats tried to block Myze's way but the staff ignited into life and hundreds of snakes appeared blocking their advance. He finally got close enough to make out "close the tomb. Speak Equilibrium"

Myze awoke to the other adventurers shaking him.

Grotimnos asked in worry "are you okay Myze?!"

Groggily he sat back up looking around a bit to regain his bearings. "yea I'm fine. I had the same dream as earlier but this time I could make out what the snake said; close the tomb speak equilibrium. We should continue, Grotimnos you lead the way Img feeling a little disoriented from that and don't think I'll be much help for a little bit."

As the adventurers proceeded they heard a dark meow and turned to see 3 giant cats the size of a carriage.

Grotimnos smiled "more kitties to play with" and charged with his sword, as he moved into range Onyx fired his crossbow landing a bolt in a shoulder. Myze rushed into melee range.

The first cat struck at the barbarian who dodged the claw swipe but felt the crunch of his armor under snapping jaws, the second cat went for Grotimnos with the first swipe missing but the second hitting its mark. Jaws went for the Necromancer who tried to dodge with one of the fangs scratching his shoulder; the third cat lunged for Myze once again slashing at him but the claws bounced off the metal plates uselessly. What came next however pushed him to the edge it feinted to the side and engulfed his upper mid section near the spine with its mouth and chomped hard. The sickening crunch of metal echoed into the air as rivets and plates flew across the quarry from the pressure, jagged edges bit into the open wounds as large teeth buried into Myze's back. The cat whipped its head to the right tossing the griffin like a rag doll into a broken heap on the ground with blood pooling around his crumpled body.

Onyx took another potshot at the first cat, it yowled in pain as it cradled its paw now skewered with a bolt.

Grotimnos attacked the second cat, the kriegsmesser hewed into the cat with a splash of blood. Cat 1 leaped on top of Myze to maul him but the snake staff sprung to life and struck the cat injecting its supernatural venom. The feline staggered back struggling to stand as poison wracked its vitals until it ultimately fell to the ground.

Myze pulled a minor healing potion and downed in 3 big gulps, flesh knit back together bones reset and lacerations closed; he hopped up back in the fight.

Grotimnos tried to stab the second cat, the blade thrust but missed its mark. Myze now revitalized lunged for the second cat swinging his battleaxe. The axe sunk into the flesh of its foreleg with the sound of snapping bone and a slopping separation of muscle and sinew as the entire right front leg was removed sending a torrent of blood into the air. Cat 2 was now heavily debilitated.

Onyx reloaded his crossbow and aimed at the nearest cat firing another bolt, this one sailed straight into the first cat's skull, the thing stumbled and fell to the ground.

The second cat looked between the three adventurers trying to decide which one would be the best target as it slowly backed up from intimidation. Meanwhile Onyx let out a "hmph" and loaded another bolt loosing it at the remaining feline, the bolt sailed past its mark just missing as the cat ducked. Myze sprinted with a roar battleaxe raised for an overhead blow but the cat deftly dodged the axe only to be bitten by the snake rot receiving a very unhealthy dose of poison.

Grotimnos slashed at the last cat with his kriegsmesser cleaving through the beast and lopping off its left front leg, the creature stumbled back slipping in the blood of its fallen allies. The cat now heaving and panting swiped at the Necromancer who side stepped the attack with ease, it tried to bite but he blocked with his sword giving the cat a mouthful of steel and cracking some of its teeth. The feline staggered back woozy and meowing in a low sickly manner from poison and blood loss, it slipped and fell in a pool of its own blood.

The thing could not longer fight back, even if the adventurers left it be the poison would finish it off regardless. Myze calmly stepped forward with his axe and put it out of its misery with a decapitation. The head crashed into the ground and the beast went still.

With the cats destroyed the adventurers looked ahead to see the mine has dug into a giant tomb stretching for almost a mile. Everypony else has run off, the entrance loomed over them.

Myze rested his axe on his shoulder and looked back at his companions before venturing into the tomb. Onyx drew his rapier and shield following behind.

The adventurers entered the tomb when out of it stalked a shambling figure, Rakyut again! She seemed to have a bit more whit about her. Rakyut's fourth awakening walked slow but deliberately.

Sighing heavily, Myze charged the feline in melee swinging his trusty axe parallel to the ground. The mummy's eyes flashed with a hint of intelligence for just a moment and she ducked under the swing.

Grotimnos took notice of this and stood his ground out of range readying his magic. Onyx approached the monster and jabbed at it with his raier to test its defenses and test it did, the backsword pierced cleanly through the rags and thick flesh sliding between ribs stabbing at the shriveled preserved heart. Rakyut stumbled back, then rushed in with two swipes of her paws but Onyx deftly avoided them. Myze attacked the beast again. The axe bit into her shoulder severing old wrappings releasing vile ichor into the air. Grotimnos darted in and thrust his hooves out unleashing a torrent of fire with Burning Hooves. The mummy collapsed into dust, sand, and bits of raw glass.

Myze panted with the beast dead (again) and looked around the are to take stock of it. Onyx wiped his muzzle and sniffed "it's not over," he muttered as he looked at the snake staff "till we seal her away."

Myze hummed "you're right. Howe do we do that with her all... disintegrated? does somepony want to get a dustpan? Myze a broom?" he gestured expansively towards the remains with the serpent staff.

The others shrugged and they all headed in through the quarry tunnels until they found the entrance to the tomb. A big bronze door which was swiftly pushed open creaking on its protesting hinges. The air inside smelt of decay and spice and more than a little blood. As they stood in the doorway they could just make out a niche in each of the rooms far corners. A box of some sort filled each niche. One of these was opened and its lid lay discarded on the floor. Directly across form the door was an aclove filled with a dark hulking shale. Two red eyes peered out at them reflecting the light form the doorway.

Seeing the eyes the Barbarian drew his axe again ready for another battle. But... nothing happened. "Drat, start checking those niches. There might be something of value in those boxes." He moved to the box immediately to the right of where they entered and attempted to lever it open with the butt of his axe.

The coffin popped open revealing a mummified large plains cat, the sarcophagus looked as if it were inlayed with all sorts of jewels that were likely taken by miners. An hour goes by as the adventurers searched the room trying to find a door or a path. The looming figure with red eyes turned out to be a statue of a large reclining cat, two brilliant rubies for eyes. Seemed the gems were too snug for the miners to remove. Upon closer inspection the jaw seemed to be separate from the rest of the statue like a sword and sheath, it looked like the mouth could be manually opened as a switch.

Myze gripped the jaw of the cat and pulled open the mouth. The jaw slid open revealing a trap door int he center of the room with a rusty iron ladder leading down some 20 hooves. He looked at his teammates then descended down the ladder.

Reaching the bottom the group found a long hallway terminating with another ladder heading up with a trap door at the top. The bottom of the ladder was littered with ancient bleached bones. As they walked down the hallway, Myze looked to the sides to see what was what. Upon discovering whatever there was to be discovered he continued and upon reaching the bottom of the ladder drew his axe reading for a fight.

But not enemy lay in wait, in stead a story in pictographs showed a civilization worshiping the cat goddess and sacrifices. Once particular showed the goddess of chaos plucking limbs from various animals then crushing them together and opening her paws to reveal some serpentine amalgamation. At the end of the hallway they found a wall with indentations carved into the stone, the horizontal holes acted like ladder rungs going up some 20 hooves through a shaft that was roughly the length of a pony in radius, at the very top is another trap door, the area is illuminated with glowing dust worked into the pictographs. Myze signaled to the group to pause and he took a better look at some of them before continuing, after a minute or so the adventurers climbed onward and Myze saw a lever in the wall with a pictograph next to it showing the trap door open. Shrugging to his companions Myze reached for it.

The door popped open... Then down at the bottom something popped out and bloomed like a flower revealing four large and very sharp blades, the device began spinning at high speed filling the shaft with a buzzing sound while the rung closed shut like a sliding door nearly taking off Myze's claw, he yanked it out in time and saw the next rung below start to close, leaping upward he latched onto the opening to the room above dangling in the air as the ladder below him began to vanish. His fellow adventurers looked down at the blender and up at the quickly disappearing ladder with wide eyes and shrunk pupils.


	4. Wrath of Rakyut pt 3

Ch 5 Wrath of Rakyut pt 3

Onyx and Grotimnos yanked their hooves out from the rungs avoiding dismemberment but were then left falling downwards with the whirling blades waiting them at the bottom. Thinking fast Onyx threw his shield into the blades before bracing himself against the walls in front and behind to stop the falling; unfortunately the shield ricocheted off the death trap and flew back at him like a flying guillotine. Onyx miraculously caught the shield with his fucking teeth.

The shaft was narrow enough for the adventurers to press their forehooves against one side and hind hooves against the other to support themselves, Grotimnos hurled his kriegsmesser down in the same vein as the Rogue, the result was like tossing a razor in a garbage disposal with the sword bouncing around chaotically as it struck the blades. Eventually though the sword tip did catch one of the latter rungs before it could close thus locking it in place and resisting the spinning blades as they rose forcing the trap to a hold like a wrench in between gears, the grinding of metal was torture to the ears while spinning blades jerked in place as the greatsword wavered and flexed under the abusive testing of its strength.

The adventurers bought themselves a bit of time but not much; Myze managed to already get his claw onto the sides of the trap door at the top and was in the midst of pulling himself up while Grotimnos wedged his scythe into the opposing walls forming a handle to hang from, finally Onyx forced his hind and forelegs out to the opposite walls in a delicate balancing act.

The three sweat vigorously from the exertion and Grotimnos sighed heavily in relief at the blender's pause as he tried to pull himself up and out of the hole. Myze finished lifting himself to the next room and reached down to Grotimnos as the Necromancer stood on his scythe with his hind legs wrapping a forehoof around the Barbarian's claw and snaring his scythe with his tail to dislodge it. The two safely passed the trap door. The large sword shook violently as the blade began to warp and distort under the machinations of the blender and whining gears, time was running out.

Myze moved to help Onyx out of the hole, the pony maneuvered himself up the wall a few inches at a time until he could reach the Griffin's claw before falling. The sword finally fave under the pressure and snapped with a clang; the spinning blades rocketed up the shaft MUCH faster than they should with a series of 'fwom fwom fwom fwom' and Onyx's eyes bugged out while Myze yanked him out of the hatch a mere fraction of a second before the Rogue was turned into a pony slushie. Onyx in panic kicked the trap door shut.

The three collapsed in a heap of panting and sweating. Onyx looked at Myze "thanks..." he breathed before standing and assessing the new surroundings. Grotimnos wiped his matted mane out of his eyes "where ever we are, somepony really doesn't want us here."

The room is decent in size and only one door stood before them with no other leads aside from... well... going back down the door... The three faced a bland hallway 10 feet wide made of sandstone bricks and hieroglyphs, most prominent of which was a giant cat roaring like a lion. At the end of the hallway they found a door but before they could reach it the ground began to shake as stone wall blocked off the hall behind them and two glass walls launch from the ground up separating each adventurer. The room was now divided into three parts with one pony/changeling/griffin in each with a glass wall separating them. Grotimnos on one end, Myze on the other and Onyx in the middle with the exit in front of him.

Hatched opened up in the ceiling above all three and oil started to pour in a cascade of pitch. The oils splattered on the floor and began to fill up the three sections, when the oil eventually reached the torches well... game over the adventurers. The three's hooves and claws were now soaked in oil. Onyx saw the exit directly in front of him a simple door that he could pass through to safety and leave the others behind.

Raising his battleaxe, Myze attempted to break the glass wall.

Grotimnos looked at the number of torches in his section as Myze's axe bounced off the glass. 2 blazing lights adorned each wall Grotimnos noticed, he pulled out his waterskiing from his rations sack and with a simple cantrips levitated and poured the water over the sources of light; at least he wouldn't burn to death now... instead he would just drown in oil...

Grotimnos panicked as he thought 'come on come on come on!' his eyes rushed over the roaring lion on the hieroglyphs, so much focus was placed on it in each section.

Grotimnos' panick died as he dead panned and got into his best lion position "well better than trying nothing" With a deep breath he let out his best lion roar shouting at the top of his lungs resulting in the glass wobbling, it wasn't enough. Onyx turned to Grotimnos's glass wall and both stallions screamed a crescendo battering the glass with sonic waves, the glass wobbled and vibrated erratically until a high pitched chip was head followed closely by a small crack. Another bout of yelling and the crack grew larger spiderwebbing across the entire wall.

Grotimnos took the butt of his scythe and delivered a blunt strike to the fragile cracked glass shattering it into pieces, the oil flowing in a wave into the two small rooms becoming a single unit. Myze screeched at the glass while the other two yelled from the opposing side cracking it in a similar fashion before once again Grotimnos broke the glass. As the oil piled the group opened the door causing the pool of pitch to thin and shallow as it stretched into the new hallway.

Haggard with eyes twitching in anger and fear driven adrenalin the adventurers entered into a new room filled with mummified animals of all sorts containing two large statues of bipedal cats each with one eye closed. In the center were a few tables with embalming tools atop. Along the walls with the remains was an assortment of precious jewels and bags of gold, likely offerings. ON the other side of the room was a door.

Grotimnos rose his brow and said "well looks like we found where the Cats come from" he inspected the offerings and reached out to take one.

"Hmm..." Onyx put a hoof to his chin. "I've got a bad feeling about this." he looked towards the statues and mummified remains waiting for any reaction as Grotimnos inspected the precious treasure pile.

After some moments Onyx noticed the statue seemed to have switched eyes, before the right eye was closed, now the left eye was. When Grotimnos moved to take and offering both statues opened both their eyes and began shooting beams of light from them.

Grotimnos froze "oh buck" noticing the new source of light he tried to move back closer to the entrance of the room.

Myze snatched the offering from Grotimnos and toosed it back to where it was before but it was for naught. The beams were sweeping the room and the adventurers needed to act. Grotimnos tried to tip over the table to hide behind after which Onyx also dove into cover behind the furniture; Myze on the other claw picked up a massive golden tray as a tower shield.

The aventurers succeeded in hiding from the beams of light... form one statue... unfortunately the other snuck a shine on their backs after which that statue animated to life moving its arms out with a kopesh in each hand. Grotimnos unleashed a jet of flame from his hooves at the statue charring its stone and leaving its bronze red hot. Onyx lunged with his rapier at the charred stone causing a burst of dust as a chunk was pulverized.

Myze slammed his axe into the side of the statue's torso cleaving the damaged golem in half while it crumbled to the floor revealing a cluster of rubies, amethyst, emeralds, and sapphires likely used as magical conduits. The magic essence faded away leaved 12000 bits worth of precious stones glittering on the floor. The other statue returned to its calm vigil; Myze walked over to the remains and split the treasure evenly among the three passing the other two their shares "yeesh testy..." he took stock of the room again and looked at the other statue. Grotimnos poked his head out and charged the other statue with a full body tackle, the momentum from his scalemail knocking the statue over smashing it to pieces revealing another cluster of gems for another 12000 bits of treasure.

Myze lead the others to the next room as Grotimnos swiped the most valuable item in the room whispering "looooot" a bronze kopesh with an almost ace-like blade and silver pommel with jewel encrusted granite hoofguard and pure gold plated handle. Myze shook his head in startled wonderment at the find and took another look about the room searching for anything else of value. In his search he found a solid golden bust of a cat with rubies for eyes worth 1100 bits.

Venturing into the next room the adventurers came across a fairly mundane square room with a bowl of spicy incense in the center, a thin tongue of smoke gently weaving above it. In the top of the room was a 2 by 2 by 2 foot bronze grate covering a vent. ON the other side was a basic stone door.

Myze observed the room trying to identify the purpose of the incense and where this strange vent would lead. He took stock of how high the ceiling was and how close they were to the vent, he then went to examine the stone door on the far side of th room. The incense didn't appear to serve any noticeable purpose aside form possibly meditation... the vent was 9 feet above the ground and filtered out the smoke, the large door had no discernible handles or groves and pushing against it did nothing. It was in a 6 inch diameter bowl of clay, inside was a cluster of 8 strange clumps that appeared to be charcoal, underneath the clumps was a layer of black and sand-like substance which was red hot in certain spots and appeared to be fuel. The smoke was thickest around the actual bowl but thinned out into a wisp unusually fast just a few inches above the thing.

Shrugging Myze kicked the bowl over. The container toppled over and a loud hiss was heard the clumps of charcoal burst into a billow of thick dark smoke that concentrated into the shape of a pony sized cat with two malevolent glowing eyes. Onyx and Grotimnos looked at Mzye with half lidded faces bearing frowns.

Myze gave a cheeky grin nd hoisted his battleaxe charging the Smoke Elemental. The blade glided through like empty air dealing no damage to speak of. Some dust fell from the ceiling grate as it rumbled a bit and the rivets strained as if something heavy sat on top. Grotimnos readied a spell while Myze and Onyx darted an eye up at the noise.

Grotimnos fired a volley of Magic Missiles at the smoke while Onyx 'YOINK'ed his scythe and hooked it into the grating tugging it down. A sharp yelp was heard as a dark grey stallion with a white mane and a scar over one of his dark grey eyes clad in full plate fell out crashing onto the ground, a behemoth of a silver bladed sword fell down next to him impaling the Smoke Elemental as it reeled from the spell; the shining metal burned through the ashen air making the monster howl in pain.

Myze stepped back away from the Elemental and the stranger taking a defensive stance.

The Smoke Elemental lunched for the Rogue who deftly dodged, Onyx grabbed the giant sword and dragged it over to the newcomer.

"wah?" the Newcomer said then saw the elemental "well crap. Back to work I guess." he grabbed the sword and swung it over his head with a 'whump whump whump' hacking into the creature gliding the silver through the smoke evaporating it into thin air as it roared and vanished. A latch could be heard from the stubborn door.

"Well... I expected more. Anyway I see I have some new acquaintances. My name is Gray Water. Who might you all be?" The newcomer asked.

Blinking a few times the Rogue shook his head "I'm Onyx"

"Well... since the door is obviously the way forward, let's go." Gray gestured to follow as he opened the now unlocked passage.

"i'm Grotimnos" the half Changeling responded following behind.

"Myze." the griffin said next as they proceeded into the next room.

This new area was a long hallway filled with zombified cats lounging around and staring into space. The hallway had a banquet table covered in rotten food with the stench of decay permeating the air and at the head of the table sat a golden throne with a clean silver plate in front that seemed to shimmer with magic.

Tot he left and right sides were arch ways that lead to various rooms and chambers, this almost appeared to be a home... behind the throne was a massive statue of a bipedal cat covered in blue gold which had long since faded and peeled away leaving only flakes over a stone statue. The mouth had been shattered and parts of the torso had holes in them. As the adventurers preceded the zombie cats all turned towards them with a glare before stalking forward menacingly. Then a loud serpentine hiss echoed off the walls making the felines yowl in terror and flee into the previous room darting around the adventurers. The four noticed how all the hieroglyphs depicting the cat goddess of chaos had been scratched away and papyrus scrolls describing rituals for the goddess' worship had been soaked with what looks like snake venom. Everything that was built to honor the cats had been ether destroyed or defaced.

Myze proceeded down the hallway towards the end of the table intent on getting a closer look at the silver plate. As he walked the path he observed the hieroglyphs and sides of the corridor for anything of interest.

"Myze was it? Be careful. Whoever defiled these ruins my have also laid traps." Gray warned.

Out from the husk of a statue a giant serpent emerged, an anaconda with green scales and black lines weaving down its back, large yellow eyes with slit pupils, its body 20 feet long with a diameter of 7 inches. It shattered more of the statue as it coiled and wreathed breaking the visage of the cat into shards. The large serpent returned to the party and flicked its tongue rapidly. Something was... familiar about it to Myze...

Gray Water readied his shield and stood in front of the others just in case a fight broke out. The serpent staff on Myze's back began to writhe. Wait... this... this was the snake from his visions!

Gray took notice "That... is some spooky magic right there. Writhing snake staff. Creepy..."

Grotimnos tenses "be careful Myze"

Myze approached the serpent warily.

The serpent lifted its head and noticed the Barbarian "ah... you have finally made it. I am glad. My name is Ezekiel. I am a lesser Angel of Pacifae. Beings such as myself were once devoted priests who ascended into immortal form through our devotion. I've dedicated my eternal life to ensuring that Rakyut can never merge from her tomb. And you... have been chosen as a champion of our lord. I am honored to meet one blessed by Pacifae." he bows. "I can guide you through hidden passages to Rakyut's tomb."

The adventurers stared blinking.

"soooooo... you coming?" Ezekiel asked.

"Creepy snakepony? Well, now I've seen everything. C'mon, lets get going." Gray followed behind.

The ponies followed the serpent who pushed a few blocks in with his nose revealing a hidden path. Heading inside a growl was heard, Ezekiel raised his head and hissed. Rakyut stepped forward from the shadows her body much more well formed with a face beholden to intelligence. "so... You're the ones who've been making my return difficult."

Rakyut's Sixth Awakening held her hands out and pulled them away from each other while chanting, a large scimitar of fire appeared and with a flick of her hand it spun launching towards the party.

Gray and Onyx got seared by the flames as they tried to dodge, Grotimnos got a full blast of the spell as the blade went straight through his torso flying through him and then into Myze's leg; only the Angel managed to dodge.

Myze rushed forward with a snarl hacking at the mummy with his axe biting into the wrappings, Gray swung his sword catching only air as Rakyut ducked in time; afterwards Onyx fired a bolt with his crossbow which sadly sailed past the mummy who darted out of the way. Ezekiel snapped his mighty jaws down on the creature's collar bone causing a loud crunch to be heard. Rakyut stumbled back unsteadily.

Grotimnos attempted to hook his scythe in the mummy's mouth but she kicked the poll as it approached knocking it away but also losing her balance in the process. As she fell to the ground the Necromancer got a free shot sinking his scythe blade into her chest with a burst of sand and scarabs that scuttled away into the shadows.

With that new threat disposed of the adventurers found their way through the tunnel into Rakyut's crypt a place guarded by monsters and traps abound but also holding the mummy's final resting place, holding the key to sealing her away permanently.

The walls seemed alive with shifting cat shaped shadows. It was as if the room were filled with cats running, leaping, and playing. Some of the shadows loomed large as though the cat were close to the torches the adventurers had lit on their way in. Others were smaller like the cats were closer to the walls. Near the center of the room was a life sized statue of a cat carved of smokey crystal, after a moment it began to shimmer and transform. The eyes blinked, the fur fluffed, and the statue came to life. A grey kitten looked up at the adventurers with wide eyes; it meowed sweetly and stepped forth to brush against Grotimnos' legs in greeting.

Onyx frowned "Don't let it touch you. I have a feeling bad things will happen if we do." he took a step away in the opposing direction.

The kitten rubbed up against the other adventurers aside from Myze and Onyx who gave it a wide berth much to its sadness. It took one look as Ezekiel's death glare and shied away. After a bit of walking around and purring it returned to the middle of the room and became crystal once more.

Myze approached the door at the far end of the hall, it was locked and held strong.

Grotimnos looked down "myze it's in here" and tried to smash the Crystal cat. As Grotimnos went to move his legs started to feel numb where the cat rubbed against; after a while him and Grey wobble and collapse, their legs paralyzed. Myze rushed over to the two quickly trying to asses their condition. Onyx shrugged and stepped onward, he took his shield in both hooves and brought the bottom edge down onto the crystal cat as hard as he could muster. The crystal shattered and the two paralyzed adventurers could move once more.

With a breath Myze approached the door again inspecting the lock.

The door was locked with a worn old iron lock easy to pick or smashed off. Onyx pulled out his thieves' tools and flirted with the tumblers on the lock until it popped open.

Ahead was a long corridor with a series of holes in the ceiling that could not have been caused by design, instead natural erosion from rainfall oer sandstone. the tunnels were at an angle and acted as a slide for those on the outside atop the tomb to enter. Somepony could just as easily fall down them by accident. With the beams of dusty light form the holes the adventurers can see three ponies in makeshift armor searching for something. They hadn't noticed the adventurers.

Myze gently closed the door. Onyx looked down at his crossbow then back at the door "I say we just take them out" he whispered as he pulled back the string and loaded a bolt. "Anypony thing otherwise?"

Myze pondered "That could work. and if they're friendly?"

Onyx loked away from the group. "I don't know if you can tell, but I'm not exactly the most trusting of ponies." he sighed before looking back to the Barbarian "we'll give them one chance. If they show any signs of attacking, my bolt will find a new home inside one of their skulls."

Myze put his talons up "I'm all for smashing their skulls open like so many eggs I'm merely wondering why normal ponies are this deep in the tomb. So far all we've encountered ar e monsters and zombie cat goddesses."

"probably got in through the holes in the ceiling." Myze replied.

Both adventurers made good points.

Myze observed the other group "I could go in staying out of staying out of melee range and talk while the rest of you get ready to ambush should things go south. Gray and Groty you have any ideas or opinions?"

Onyx shook his head "go ahead. But we're wasting time sitting in this room." He went into full stealth "I'll go in before you and get a good line of sight. Give me a minute before you come in... Unless they spot me. Then come in immediately." without waiting for a response he quietly opened the door and snuck into th hallway readying his weapon as he lurked in the shadows; the other ponies remained completely unaware. Myze entered the room and approached the other staying out of combat range. "Hello!" he called attempting to get their attention. "I'm a little lost, can you guys help me?"

"hm?" one of the ponies turned around, "wha... huh so there are others that fell down here... say... are uh... there any others down here besides you?"

"Nope, just me. so... do you guys know of any way out?" Is there a fire exit? That door back there just leads to some random treasure room but all that was there was some fancy glowing thing."

The pony nods "huh... well I guess we got 2 scores today once we find that other colt" the three drew their weapons "dump all your bits and weapons on the ground"

Myze hummed "hmmm... yea... about that... I don't really have anything on me except for this axe and it was kind of a gift so I really don't think that that is going to happen. What other colt?" How many creatures have fallen into this thing? I mean if it's so common that more than 4 ponies fell down here in a single day, you'd think that there would be hordes of corpses and what have you down here, but there's nothing; weird right?"

"well ponies don't normally climb up here but the little buck kept dodging and climbing so there wasn't much choice. Also I don't remember asking, I was ordering" the bandits began to approach.

Myze backed up looking around to see where Onyx was and anything else in the room with everypony outside of melee range and his companions behind him with Onyx ahead one with the darkness he shouted "Onyx! Fire!" followed by running towards the door. Onyx loosed a bolt at the nearest enemy then darted behind the griffin. The projectile whistled through the air and split one of the bandit's skull down the middle.

A strange rattling sound could be heard. The two bandits cursed and pulled out composit bows firing pot shots that bounced off the door as it shut behind the adventurers. Myze and Onyx backed away from the door to have an angle on them before they entered the room and stood on the opening side of the door to stay out of the line of sight.

Another rattling sounded.

As the bandits charged in a grinding metal was heard accompanied by a long whip of serrated chain licking the wall and wrapped around one of the bandit's necks causing him to yelp. The barbs ripped into his skin as they constricted and yanked him onto the floor dragging the screaming pony into the shadows. A moment passed and a mechanical thunk was heard. A pool of blood waded from the shadows. Silence. the last bandit gawked at the darkness and fired arrows randomly into the dark leaving his back open to the adventurers.

The group continued to watch waiting and trying to catch a glimpse of what killed the bandits hooves resting on the door ready to close it. Onyx readied a bolt as Myze spoke up "or... we could wait and identify this new threat; that bandit will still die and we will have information on our next challenge." "...nah." Onyx loosed another bolt at the bandit's head killing him with a thunk as it sunk in.

Grotimnos crouched "ummm anypony else hope that's our snake buddy?" he readied his scythe.

"actually I'm right here" Ezekiel said next to the group.

Soft beams of light from the holes in the ceiling shone on the lake of blood between the door and the shadows beyond the dust particles. A thick uncomfortable silence seemed to echo and lay crushing on the area.

Myze glared at the darkness "Onyx. Fire again."

Onyx loaded a bolt and aimed at the door but held. The silence thickened as the metal of the weapon felt like lead in the Rogue's hooves. Nothing happened as half an hour passed by. Grotimnos threw a rock down the hall.

Onyx whispered "this is getting us nowhere." he lowered his crossbow but kept it in his hooves "whatever that was either can't or doesn't want to enter this room."

Echoes form the rock bounce along the hallway.

Myze bravely entered the next room. The barbarian stepped forth through the hallway until he could see into the shadows finding an Earth Pony with a brown coat and braided brown mane kept close to his neck with a short tail wearing blackened leather armor and a barbed chain whip wrapped around his torso like a sash with a crossbow on his back.

Myze stepped back into the previous room and told the others to do the previous plan again. Grotimnos hid behind the frame of the door and listened in wait.

Myze stepped into the open "yo! you lost mate?"

The new pony turned to glance at the party "no though I could ask the same for you."

Myze responded "I know exactly where I am; and where I am going as well. May I inquire as to your destination?"

"No that concern is mine alone" the Rogue answered coldly.

Onyx moved past Myze and brought his crossbow up to aim at the new pony. "that's not exactly a sound reply when it's numbered five to one. Why don't you at least tell us your name?"

"would that be particularly wise to draw a weapon on a potential ally?" the Earth Pony commented raising hooves away from his own weapons in a show of good will. After a moment of thought he answered "its Meloch"

Onyx kept his weapon raised not relaxing "that's a step in the right direction, but I'm not about to go trusting everypony I meet. Potential ally is stretching it a bit don't you think?"

"you're right I"m only planning to keep you around to carry all the valuables I plan to loot from this place" Meloch replied sarcastically.

Myze growled "this is a waste of time. We need to continue forward. If you want to accompany us you may I'm sure there will be treasure along the way if that is your only goal." with that he brushed past both Rogues and headed towards the exit. Keeping his eye on Meloch Onyx stowed his weapon and followed te Griffin.

With a new pony in the group the adventurers passed through the hallway to find a door that led into a vast open are. The adventurers stood upon a bridge of sorts acting as a floor in a colossal cavern illuminated by torches on the walls. The bridge extended into an open floor supported by columns underneath that stretch going ever ever downward into a black abyss. With no railings a missed step near the edge would result in a fall of unknowable height but unmistakable death. The floor lead to 3 possible pathways. ONe ended just short of a series of platforms spaced 3 feet apart. Great acrobatics would be needed to traverse it, but at the other end lied a tempting gilded chest.

the second path was a ramp that lead downward to a series of floors each a square of 4 connecting pathways with one having a ramp leading to the next lower floor and so on. From an upper angel it looked like a tower of hollow square plates all hovering above one another. At the bottom the adventurers could just barely make out several pestles holding shimmering objects.

The center path had a drop off with build in ladder rungs carved into the stone going down 10 feet leading to massive double door which seemed to be the actual way forward. Onyx looked around "does anypony have a rope?"

"Not I" Meloch replied looking for any obvious traps on the second path.

Nopony else had any rope in their packs either. The ramp acted like a stairway down to a lower floor made up of four walkways that connected into a square going down them would be like being in a tall building heading down floor to floor walking around to the other end to find the next stairwell. The platforms heading upwards however looked like a test of agility and luck whereas the ramp that lead down several floors looked like they were just begging for enemies to appear. 2 treasures, one protected by likely traps and a need for acrobatics while the other was guarded by unseen opponents.

Which to go for first?


End file.
